Reach benchmarks by follower bracket
We tracked 50,000 LinkedIn posts in February and measured reach across seven follower brackets at four performance tiers: typical (p50, median), strong (p75, top 25%), top (p90, top 10%), and breakout (p99, top 1%).
Absolute reach scales with audience size. A typical post at 0–1K followers gets 148 impressions. At 100K+ followers, 12,520.
But reach rate — impressions as a percentage of follower count — moves the other way. A typical post at 0–1K reaches 31% of the account's network. At 100K+, just 6%. Most of that drop happens below 5,000 followers. After that, the rate barely moves.
When reach rate crosses 100%, the post has traveled beyond the follower base. At 0–1K followers, a top post (p90) hits 245% — nearly 2.5x the account's network. At 100K+, even a top post stays at 36%.
Month over month, the 25–50K bracket contracted across every metric. The 1–5K bracket expanded on almost everything. The middle is tightening while the lower brackets open up and gain more reach overall.
The 50–100K bracket shows higher typical, strong, and top reach rates than 25–50K.
See the full breakdown below.
The Shield Index
@TheShieldIndex / theshieldindex.com
Full reach benchmarks
The complete February 2026 reach benchmark across all 13 follower brackets.
Reach rate (% of follower count)
Bracket | Typical | Strong | Top | Breakout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
0–500 | 41% | 115% | 367% | 3,028% |
500–1K | 27% | 64% | 174% | 2,470% |
1–2.5K | 22% | 52% | 139% | 1,514% |
2.5–5K | 16% | 37% | 96% | 894% |
5–10K | 11% | 27% | 74% | 652% |
10–25K | 8% | 21% | 58% | 473% |
25–50K | 6% | 17% | 50% | 291% |
50–75K | 8% | 19% | 52% | 237% |
75–100K | 7% | 22% | 73% | 256% |
100–250K | 6% | 17% | 47% | 170% |
250–500K | 5% | 13% | 27% | 107% |
500–1M | 6% | 15% | 28% | 40% |
1M+ | 2% | 6% | 16% | 37% |
Absolute reach (impressions per post)
Bracket | Typical | Strong | Top | Breakout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
0–500 | 94 | 227 | 758 | 5,936 |
500–1K | 199 | 484 | 1,332 | 21,405 |
1–2.5K | 372 | 875 | 2,345 | 23,622 |
2.5–5K | 564 | 1,371 | 3,501 | 33,845 |
5–10K | 774 | 1,961 | 5,223 | 48,288 |
10–25K | 1,216 | 3,248 | 9,052 | 75,131 |
25–50K | 2,143 | 6,001 | 17,352 | 105,387 |
50–75K | 4,780 | 11,228 | 31,547 | 141,799 |
75–100K | 6,232 | 19,564 | 63,410 | 230,617 |
100–250K | 9,062 | 25,761 | 80,712 | 277,671 |
250–500K | 19,143 | 47,365 | 109,374 | 320,045 |
500–1M | 36,914 | 102,995 | 166,588 | 310,561 |
1M+ | 24,072 | 120,925 | 288,816 | 555,265 |
The rates tell one story. The absolute numbers tell another.
At 0–500 followers, a typical post reaches 94 people — 41% of the network.
At 100–250K, it reaches 9,062 — 6%.
The rate drops 7x. The absolute reach grows 96x.
A breakout post at 0–500 reaches 5,936 impressions.
A typical post at 25–50K reaches 2,143.
The tail of the smallest follower bracket outreaches the median of a mid-sized bracket by nearly 3x.
The 50–100K shelf
In the trimmed view, the 50–100K bracket shows higher reach rates than 25–50K on typical, strong, and top tiers. The 13-bracket view confirms both sub-brackets contribute.
The 50–75K bracket sits at 8% typical, 19% strong, 52% top — all above 25–50K (6%, 17%, 50%). The 75–100K bracket goes further: 22% strong, 73% top. Those are the highest strong and top reach rates of any bracket above 25K.
Three months tell the same story. The 75–100K top reach rate has climbed each month — 60% in December, 63% in January, 73% in February. The 25–50K bracket held steady through January then dropped (strong: 19% → 19% → 17%, top: 53% → 55% → 50%).
Crossing 50K followers doesn't come with the reach cost the lower brackets would predict.
Month-over-month movement
Under 5K: small accounts, bigger swings.
The 1–2.5K bracket rose on every metric — the only bracket in the dataset to do so. Typical reach rate: 21% → 22%. Breakout reach rate: 1,230% → 1,514%. The 500–1K bracket compressed at the median (typical reach: 209 → 199) but surged at the top — breakout reach nearly tripled, from 7,681 to 21,405. The gap between a normal post and a hit is widening at the bottom.
5–25K: the floor holds, the ceiling drops.
Typical reach rate is flat across both brackets. The decline is above — strong and breakout are both down. The 10–25K bracket fell on almost everything; breakout reach held (75,515 → 75,131), the rest moved down. If you're in this range, your baseline is steady. Your upside is narrowing.
25–75K: the widest contraction in the dataset.
The 25–50K bracket declined across every metric — no other group fell this broadly. The 50–75K bracket followed. This is the range many mid-sized accounts are growing into, and the reach dynamics moved against them in February.
75–100K: the exception.
Up on every metric except breakout reach rate, which held flat. The brackets on either side — 50–75K and 100–250K — both contracted.
100K+: three months, mixed signals.
The 100–250K breakout reach rate fell to its lowest in three months (210% → 223% → 170%). The floor holds; the ceiling is coming down. The 250–500K bracket is the most stable of the group — rates barely moved across three months. Above 500K, the direction across three months trends down on most metrics, but the samples are thin enough that any single month could swing it.
Next up: content type benchmarks for February. If there's a cut you want to see — bracket, content type, cadence, something else — reply to this email.
For teams and agencies that need something specific, we do custom cuts. Same data, your parameters.